Raging Caging - What the heck is vote caging, and why should we care? (Slate)

[WePurrsevere]

Last week, in her testimony before the House judiciary committee, Monica Goodling referred several times to "vote caging" possibly done by Arkansas' soon to be ex-interim, never-confirmed U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin. Yet Goodling was questioned about this almost not at all, nor did the media do much more than report the words of the former liaison between the White House and Alberto Gonzales (why a "liaison" is required between two institutions with no boundaries between them is incomprehensible, but perhaps another story). Meanwhile, liberal talk radio, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the blogosphere went nuts. So, which is it: Is vote caging the most underreported part of this U.S. attorneys scandal or the most over-hyped?

<Snip>

Vote caging is an illegal trick to suppress minority voters (who tend to vote Democrat) by getting them knocked off the voter rolls if they fail to answer registered mail sent to homes they aren't living at (because they are, say, at college or at war). The Republican National Committee reportedly stopped the practice following a consent decree in a 1986 case. Google the term and you'll quickly arrive at the Wizard of Oz of caging, Greg Palast, investigative reporter and author of the wickedly funny Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans—Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild. Palast started reporting allegations of Republican vote caging for the BBC's Newsnight in 2004. He's been almost alone on the story since then. Palast contends, both in Armed Madhouse and widely through the liberal blogosphere, that vote caging, an illegal voter-suppression scheme, happened in Florida in 2004 this way:

• The Bush-Cheney operatives sent hundreds of thousands of letters marked "Do not forward" to voters' homes. Letters returned ("caged") were used as evidence to block these voters' right to cast a ballot on grounds they were registered at phony addresses. Who were the evil fakers? Homeless men, students on vacation and—you got to love this—American soldiers. Oh yeah: most of them are Black voters.
  
  
• Why weren't these African-American voters home when the Republican letters arrived? The homeless men were on park benches, the students were on vacation—and the soldiers were overseas.

<snip>
From the point of view of the ongoing DoJ scandal, perhaps what's most urgent about the vote-caging claims is that they go a long, long way toward explaining why Karl Rove and Harriet Miers were so determined to get Griffin seated in the Arkansas U.S. Attorney's office, and to do so without a confirmation hearing. If, as the Justice Department has continued to insist, Griffin was eminently qualified for the position, why did he need to be spared the hearing at all costs? And once it became clear that he would undergo a hearing, why did Griffin sideline himself with the colorful observation that undergoing Senate confirmation would be "like volunteering to stand in front of a firing squad in the middle of a three-ring circus?" Griffin—who is now in job talks with the Fred Thompson campaign—sure looks like a guy hiding something, and if vote caging is that something, it becomes even more interesting that the White House was pushing him forward.

[wakeme2008]

1. Be interesting if he does go to work for Fred Thompson

There was a post on here, that questioned if Thompson wanted him associated with his campaign.

[WePurrsevere]

8. Fred Thompson might want him? That doesn't seem like it would be

a smart thing to do.

[maddezmom]

2. K&R

:kick:

[LaurenG]

3. Excellent education on the term "Vote Caging"

Thank you - Kicked and recommended. :kick:

[DemReadingDU]

4. here is a link

http://www.slate.com/id/2167284/

[WePurrsevere]

6. Thank you so much for posting the link. I can't believe that I forgot to add that in.

I had found this in searching for another story my DH had mentioned and wanted to get it posted before my daughter and granddaughter showed up... then they showed up early. :)

[L. Coyote]

5. Slowly, the Ozark Stonewall of Myriad Deceptions is Crumbling

I was surprised to read on Slate: ... "Vote caging, what's that?" we e-mailed each other at Slate. ............

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Raging Caging: What the heck is vote caging, and why should we care? - May 31, 2007, at 6:24 PM ET
http://www.slate.com/id/2167284/pagenum/all/#page_start
=========================================

Salon is really on the tail of the tale.
Seems they should be reading more DU. !!
And they even admit they Googled this. ?
DU has been on this in depth for months.

Retelling the tale: First, the DoJ issue seemed to have a "voter fraud" spin.

Carol Lam had zero, zip, nada to do with voter fraud.
In her case, another excuse had been spun out to confuse, the
coyote issue, initially called illegal immigration. The Rs in the
Goodling hearing was the first usage of "coyote" I noted. Rep. Issa
was the one who leaked false info on Carol Lam before the Cunningham
case saw the light of public press. This timeline needs more review. But,
the digging deeper led to Medicare fraud when the Missouri firing came out.

5/06: Missouri attorney a focus in USA firings = Bradley Schlozman
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x832164

And there was a ton of spin in the "voter fraud" direction that did not
fit very well. Yes, there was the actual case of four individuals being
charged. It was such a stretch to think that this was going to alter
the result of the Presidential election; compared to the Ohio purges,
long lines, vote-switching, recount fraud, and long list of shenanigans,
the "firing" of the Missouri USA attribution to voter fraud seemed spin-ish.

And, there were some really big fish and big $$$$$$$ in the Missouri corruption pond.
In fact, the public corruption fishing hole everywhere seems to be the biggest pond.
Governor Matt Blunt tried to prevent the USA's office from investigating his
family's scandals by putting the wife of USA Todd Graves on the Blunt Family payroll
to the tune of a cool half million dollars a year, and he used taxpayer dollars to do it.
It was reported that USA Todd Graves and his family will personally benefit from no-bid
state contracts valued at more than $3.6 million given by Missouri Governor Matt Blunt.

Another connection came to light in Missouri, the investigation of Medicare fraud.
In both Missouri and California, Tenet Healthcare was a target bilking billions.

5/09: US Attorney Firing: Voter Fraud, Medicare Fraud, WHICH IS IT ???
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x853813

Suddenly, instead of "four" activists being indicted just before an election, the number
had jumped to "five" to "six" billion dollars in fraud agains hospitals and taxpayers.
Also suddenly, the number of USAs involved in the investigation jumped to "thirty."

5/13: 30 U.S. attorneys investigate BILKING BILLIONS, Medicare, Medicaid, Military’s Healthcare
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x877011

And 50 USAs wanted to investigate the oil industry and price gouging!!
Other big numbers fit into the puzzle and connect surprising pieces.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying spent by single entities, billions spent by sectors!!
Now we are really talking about some very big fish in the pond. They tip the scale.



This is a complex tale with more to tell.
Are whoopers still being spun by big fish, pointing to little fish?

=====================================
LEGAL AFFAIRS
The Scales Of Justice
By Murray Waas, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/070531nj1.htm

In the closing weeks of Missouri's tight 2006 U.S. Senate race, the U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., took the unusual step of revealing that his office's investigation into possible state government contracting abuses in Missouri had found no evidence of wrongdoing by Republican Gov. Matt Blunt. .......

[WePurrsevere]

7. Thank you for posting all those great links! One of the reasons I

enjoy DU so much is because it's almost always w-a-a-a-y ahead of everyone else in knowing what's going on and trying to get it out. If the media did their job properly this (and many other stories of BushCo BS) would have been out there along ago for the public to know.

[proud patriot]

9. I'm listening to the Randi Rhodes show archive

from today . Palast was on talking about his meeting w/ Conyers .

[WePurrsevere]

10. Is there a written transcript somewhere? DLing anything here

would be a hassle but I'd like to know what was said.

[proud patriot]

11. hmm good question

I bet there is somewhere , but I'm not sure where .